For printers serving as printing apparatus, a printer driver is periodically released as a program for which new functions are added or troubles are fixed, so that a print system or information processing apparatus using such a printer needs to have a printer driver thereof updated to a new version on a regular basis.
In such a case, when the user is to update a printer driver to a newer version, the user needs to actively locate the newest software based on information available on the Internet or from manufacturers so as to download the software (program), followed by performing a version update. This is quite troublesome.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-63098 discloses a host apparatus of a printer system, which acquires version information regarding the printer driver software currently used therein and the current printer firm of the printer apparatus connected thereto according to the operations of installed version-up software. The host apparatus also connects to the server of the printer maker via the Internet, and acquires the latest version information regarding the driver software and printer firm available on the server. If the printer driver software and printer firm that are currently installed are different in their version numbers from the latest printer driver software and printer firm provided by the maker, the latest printer driver software and/or printer firm are downloaded so as to perform a version update with respect to the driver software and/or printer firm.
In some cases, however, systems are designed based on the premise that a driver of a particular version is used. In such a case, if the newest printer driver is downloaded to perform an update simply upon the release of the newest printer driver as described above, the stability of the system may be undermined by the updating of the version of the driver.
Accordingly, there is a need for a program version management scheme which can improve system stability.